In brief: Honduras talks break down
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica – Talks on resolving Honduras’ leadership crisis broke off Sunday after the interim government rejected a proposed compromise, saying a provision calling for ousted President Manuel Zelaya to serve out his term was “unacceptable.”
Zelaya accused his opponents of “making a mockery” of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias’ attempts to mediate a solution and called for stronger international pressure on the government of Roberto Micheletti, the interim president sworn in by congress after the June 28 coup.
The two sides remained deadlocked on the issue of Zelaya’s return after a fourth day of negotiations, but Arias promised renewed efforts to seek a deal and avoid bloodshed.
Israel rejects call to halt project
JERUSALEM – Israel on Sunday rejected a U.S. demand to suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, threatening to further complicate an unusually tense standoff with its strongest ally over settlement construction.
Israeli officials said the country’s ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, was summoned to the State Department over the weekend and told that a project made up of 20 apartments developed by an American millionaire should not go ahead.
Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently yielded to heavy U.S. pressure to endorse the establishment of a Palestinian state, he has resisted American demands for an immediate freeze on settlement expansion.
On Sunday, Netanyahu told his Cabinet there would be no limits on Jewish construction anywhere in “unified Jerusalem.”
Officers detained in deaths of agents
MEXICO CITY – Mexican investigators have detained 10 police officers in the torture and killings of 12 federal agents whose bodies were found dumped along a highway in western Michoacan state.
The federal attorney general’s office said a judge ordered the officers from the town of Arteaga held pending an investigation on suspicion of involvement in the slayings.
The office said Saturday in a statement that the dead agents, who were gathering intelligence in Arteaga at the time of their abduction, were killed in revenge for the capture of an alleged top member of La Familia drug cartel.
Prosecutors also charged a former mayor of the town of La Huacana, where the bodies were found, for alleged links to organized crime.